Jan 21, 2016 | Evan Martin | 1411 views
January 19, 2016
With snow squalls on Monday, the game was moved to Tuesday night, another away game, this time in the hamlet of Kurtzville at the Wallace Community Centre.
This was a beaut of a barn for Game 3 between your Allen's Fireside Atom AE Storm and the Listowel Cyclones. Playing in their practice arena, the Cyclones had the home team advantage. Once again, this was tension at its greatest, so thick you'd need a chainsaw to cut through! The puck dropped and both teams were off. The way the Storm was playing, whew they wanted a win for Coach Rich, and Luke, and also to take a 2-1 lead home.
The first period was a hard fought battle, both team's tenders saw a lot of shots, and with the small ice surface there was a lot of physical play. Board battles, corners were being fought for, playoff hockey at its finest. Saugeen Shores fans were on edge as the seconds ticked by, gasps were heard at every shot, and sighs of relief when saves were made. Our Allen's Fireside Storm just doesn't give up anything without a fight. I could barely believe it when the first horn sounded, what seemed like an eternity had actually flown by, deadlocked at nil-nil.
When the ref lined up at centre ice, you could feel the electricity in the air. The second period started very much like the first, with great aggressive play back and forth, the defence winning their line, forwards fighting hard in the corners and along the boards, and solid play by both teams. Neither team wanted to give up anything, we even saw Lettau stop a shot with his head. Unfortunately a few minuets after that big save, at 6:11 in the second frame, the home team drew first blood, with a bouncing puck that fooled Lettau. With the home team on the board, our kids went into overdrive. They got some terrific chances, and fought hard right until the end of the second...which paid dividends, because with a mere 43 seconds left on the clock, "Scrappy" Pope potted her first of the playoffs by living up to her name and crashing the net and Scrapping her way in, with the assist going to Nason. Again, at the end of 2, it was a 1 all tie.
The he third period is where games are won and lost. This one would be no different. With some more great playoff hockey, things happen that set a chain of events that turn the tide, and at 13:42 of the frame, Legge was called for a penalty, this would be that catalyst. After his team killed the penalty, Legge anxiously awaited his time back on the ice, and he jumped out of the box, picked up a loose puck, and fought of two defenders to wire home a rocket of a shot at 11:30, to light the lamp. This fired up the team, and kept us fighting for every inch. Cyclones fired shots...Lettau fought them off, and when he made saves, his team defended him by making sure no one crashed the net. Our forwards were getting shots on net, and breaking in, testing the cyclones goaltender every chance they got. Defenders weren't giving up so much as an inch of ice, playing strong in the offence and defensive end. With 2 minutes left in the third, the Cyclones pulled their goalie and we kept the pressure on. They couldn't crack our zone at all. With 1.5 seconds left a puck was fired into the corner from centre, Meleski pushed his way into the defender, Hoffman dug the puck out and fired a pass out front and Van Geel powered one into the net to put the icing on the cake, 3-1 win and a 2-1 lead in the series. Great work kids, looking forward to Friday's game back home in Port at the Plex!